Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: Turning Point in the Pacific War

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While all the claims made at the time were highly inflated, 242 Americans and 249 Japanese did perish in the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The United States lost three replaceable destroyers, while Japan lost an irreplaceable battleship and a destroyer.

Also lost was Kondo’s career. He claimed two battleship sinkings, but not everyone swallowed Kondo’s gun-decked report. Yamamoto and his staff looked at the mounting toll of ships and men and recommended the unthinkable to the emperor–withdrawal from Guadalcanal. Kondo was fired.

The Japanese post-mortem also outlined other problems during the battle. One was all the torpedo misses, which were the result of poor firing angles. The failure to sink South Dakota was caused by Kondo’s ships being armed with contact-fused Type 3 shells instead of armor-piercing shot. Then, too, Kondo had divided his forces (a mistake since the time of Xerxes) and refused to believe his own lookouts when they identified the American battleships. A more aggressive Japanese leader might have won that night.

There was second-guessing on the American side, too. After the battle, Lee’s planning and execution kept Task Force 64 together. The battle never disintegrated into a brawl like the one the previous night.

The American weaknesses were many, however: the heterogeneous nature of the destroyer force; poor American torpedoes; appalling work on South Dakota that made America’s latest battleship a menace only to herself; and the gap in Washington’s radar coverage. Lee wrote: ‘We realized then that it should not be forgotten now, that our superiority was due almost entirely to our possession of radar. Certainly we have no edge on the Japs in experience, skill, training or performance of personnel.’

He did not list some other things that went right, like his own effective handling of the crisis and appreciation of radar, and Washington’s superb crew.

Still, Washington and South Dakota sailors fought pitched battles in bars over credit for the night’s honors. Actually, the question of who deserved the credit was immaterial. There were plenty of heroes.

One thing was clear after the battle. The Japanese had sent a convoy loaded with an entire infantry division of 12,000 men and equipment to Guadalcanal, enough to turn the tide of battle. Only 2,000 soldiers, 260 cases of ammunition and 1,500 bags of rice (a four-day supply) got ashore, after much punishment. The Americans shattered the convoy, sank two battleships, and put ashore 5,500 men and tons of supplies. The Americans had gained the edge on Guadalcanal, would clear the island, start climbing up the Solomons ladder and win the war.

Heavy thoughts of this nature did not strike Washington’s crew on November 16. Captain Davis declared ‘holiday routine’ that day–no drills, and when work was done, the crew trooped down to enjoy ice cream sodas and watch Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Santa Fe Trail.

At noon on November 17, general quarters sounded for entering Noumea and Washington moored at 2:20 p.m. in nine fathoms of water at the end of 360 feet of anchor chain. The officer of the deck laconically noted in his log that the tanker E.J. Henry came alongside at 5:59 p.m. to provide fuel.

A few hundred miles away, a Japanese staff officer was also penning a report, an appreciation of the Pacific war situation just before the two battles of Guadalcanal, which read, ‘It must be said that the success or failure in recapturing Guadalcanal Island, and the vital naval battle related to it, is the fork in the road which leads to victory for them or us.’

The fork in the road had been reached. After Washington headed south from Ironbottom Sound on the morning of November 14, it was clear which way the war would go.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, Naval Battles, World War II

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